


The perfect place to start a new life

by BellisPerennis



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: ADHD, Asperger Syndrome, Eventual Romance, Fluff, Humor, Mental Health Issues, tags will be updated as the story goes along
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:27:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26632087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BellisPerennis/pseuds/BellisPerennis
Summary: Kim is a woman with problems, among other things that she's employed by Joja. After finding an old letter she quits and moves to Stardew Valley. Can this woman of few words and many doubts find her place in the community?
Kudos: 4





	1. Joja - Leave Us and Thrive.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim rediscovers an old letter which offers a way out of her current situation.

Outside a starry sky watched through the window surrounded by walls dressed in floral wallpaper. The room was filled with a warm hue which the fireplace spilt all over the place. Slight cracking sounds accompanied the fire and mixed themselves into the burdened breathing of Kim’s grandfather. He was talking, but she had trouble focussing on his words, because the whole situation seemed so surreal. The whole family, small as it was, had assembled here, because it was time to say goodbye to the old man, as his days seemed to have reached their final numbers.  
Grandma’s picture stood on the mantelpiece, next to a figurine of a small apple-shaped creature. She had left years ago and still, Kim would have not wondered even a tiny itty-bitty little bit if she would suddenly jump through the door while exclaiming: “Surprise! I’m not dead after all!” Maybe even grabbing the old sable, that was hung directly above the mantelpiece and then engaging in spontaneous naval combat.  
But that would not happen. There had been a wake and a funeral and her gravestone had the inscription “First!”. There was no doubt about it.  
Kim felt confused and kind of hurt and also full of guilt, because it wasn’t her on the deathbed, but dear old grandpa. He was the one suffering here, not her! Also she could not for the heck of it figure out why he had decided that dressing up like a green santa was the right fashion choice at this somber moment. It couldn’t be that she was the only one that saw this, right? Someone else must have also noticed this uncanny likeness to the Winterstar’s jolly patron…  
Involuntarily shuddering, she snapped back to listen to the end of grandfather’s speech, right on time, because he was starting to address her directly.  
“... and for my very special granddaughter: I want you to have this sealed envelope.”  
With his twitching hand he pulled out an envelope hidden under his blanket and passed it over to her. Happy for a chance to break eye-contact, which had grown uncomfortable at its usual lightspeed, she grabbed the little multi-tool she kept in her pocket and snapped the knife open, but before she could break the old-fashioned wax seal, she was interrupted by grandpa.  
“No, no, don’t open it yet… have patience.”  
Kim mannerly nodded and put both the letter and tool away.  
“Now, listen close…”, demanded grandpa, and she knelt down next to him to best hear what he wanted to share: “There will come a day when you feel crushed by the burden of modern life and your bright spirit will fade before a growing emptiness. When that happens, my dear, you’ll be ready for this gift.”  
She felt a knot in her stomach at his words. Oh, why did he have to die? Grandpa was the only person in the world that would not let her feel like her many flaws made her a lesser person, no! He let her know that all those quirks and odd behaviour made her someone worth loving, even if she herself had a hard time believing that.  
“Now let grandpa rest…”, said the old man and made a decisive pushing gesture. He did not have the strength left to actually shove her away, but she appreciated the attempt nonetheless. 

Kims vision was kinda blurry. She blinked a few times and found herself staring at her JojaTM monitor with its JojaTM operating system in all its JojaTM glory. Tiredly she rubbed her eyes to regain concentration. What a strange timing to think back to that night from all those years ago. Was this the kind of feeling he had prophesied her? She was not sure… it was pretty bright here in the office with all those flood lights at the ceiling. And the little boxes in which she and all those many colleagues of her were typing away their days had this medium greyish tone which did not suck away all the light, but rather muted it just enough to not be glaring. And the room had huge windows! Okay, they did not connect them to the outside world, but rather to some spacious offices, where some people from higher up the corporate ladder would watch them diligently work at all hours, like hawks watched their next meal. But the try did count, didn’t it?  
And besides that, JojaTM had decorated the walls with motivatingTM words like “Smile”, “You’re with Joja” and “Life is better with Joja”. And of course the official JojaTM motto: “Join Us. Thrive.” Although she always had some complaints nagging at the back of her mind that that stop between “us” and “thrive” could be interpreted as the thriving not necessarily being the result of the joining.  
She pushed those thoughts away. No! This was a good place! She had worked so hard to find her own little niche here, where she could be productive, even if she found it hard to communicate with other people. Even if she had not the best soft skills, here at Joja TM her analytical and straight forward way of thinking had their worth, because code did not care about her ability to have smalltalk or remember names. The only thing important was that she was able to keep up with the sprints, that she was able to put those extra crunch hours in when the next milestone made it necessary. Even if that meant working 12 hours per day the weekends included for weeks or even months. A little voice in the back of her head pointed out that she never had a day at Joja that was not on crunch.  
No! The project must succeed! They all put so much work into it, there was no way that she could abandon it, failure was not an option. And JojaTM believed in it, too, otherwise would they have hired more and more people to work on this in an attempt to save everything?  
Kim brought the window with the IDE back up, set a new breakpoint and started the debugger in hopes to find that pesky Null Pointer Exception that kept her Unit-Tests from running correctly. She stared at the monitor, but instead of her code in that patented JojaTM font, she only saw grey squiggles which seemed to be marching away. She blinked. Then again. And again. Still all squiggly.  
Frustrated she borrowed her face in her hands. There was no point in lying to herself, this was a death march; the higher ups would never cancel this project and admit the failure, but instead only pump more and more resources into it, regardless of how many employees burned out in the meantime. She even resented the dim green glow the “work” light on the wall gave off. It was something she had found in the beginning a great help in keeping focussed on a task, while still remembering to take pauses, whenever the red “rest” light was turned on. She had loved programming, diving deep in the intricate depths of Joja’sTM company code, untwirling long spaghettis spiced with singletons and cyclic dependencies, spending hours immersed into something that was driven (at least theoretically) by logic and understandable with just enough effort. But the grind had… well... grinded her down.  
This work had been once her life, so much that she didn’t even care that people complained that she talked way too much about it whenever the topic came up. She could remember days when she had been so giddy to resume work that she had to consciously suppress herself, or otherwise she would have jumped all the way to work. Kim had been happy here, once. Had been.  
She could feel the familiar burn of incoming tears in her eyes, but restrained herself. No, she would not cry, she would not have another meltdown. Kim fumbled open the top drawer of her desk, which she had unofficially christened her self help drawer. Anxiously she dug in there to find her liposomal eye spray, or maybe some eye drops to reduce this itchy dryness. But her fingertips brushed something that startled her. Surprised Kim unearthed it from under her collection of wrist bandages, over the counter prescriptions, her noise-cancelling earphones which she was not allowed to use, because then everyone wants to use them and JojaTM could not allow that because _reasons_ ; self help books and regularly forgotten Methylphenidate blisters. A yellowed envelope closed with a red wax seal. Grandpa’s last letter.  
She had placed it there, so she would not be tempted to open it on some spontaneous whim and afterwards completely forgot that it was there. Oh, dear grandpa, he had always been thinking of her and cheered her up when she had been down.  
Gently, with a bittersweet smile, she placed the envelope back into the drawer and closed it. Then she turned back to her monitor to return working.  
Okay, the breakpoint was where the subroutine was called and the code broke three steps later, when she was trying to connect to the accounting database, but in a pattern which seemed to miss any rhyme or reason. But it contained a for loop over an array, maybe someone had defined the ending condition incorrectly, especially with this decrement used over there -  
Idiot, idiot, idiot! screamed her inner critic, while she forcefully pulled her drawer back out and teared that envelope open with her teeth. Not fully self aware, she spit a smidgen of paper out onto the floor and began reading her Grandpa’s last words.  
_Dear Kim. If you’re reading this, you must be in dire need of a change. The same thing happened to me, long ago._  
Her eyes widened. Really? Her Grandpa had worked for a gigantic conglomerate that metaphorically sucked his life and soul out of him? She never knew he was a progra- oh wait, no, he must have meant that in a more metaphorical sense.  
_I’d lost sight of what mattered most in life… real connections with other people and nature._  
Kim paused. To be honest, people scared her. Nature, too. How could she make a connection with things so undecipherable and overwhelming? But on the other hand, she wanted to trust her Grandpa, because she always had felt a deep connection to him, not just because they shared so many of the same traits and quirks, but because he never gave up connecting with her, even while she tried to seclude herself from the world.  
_So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong. I’ve enclosed the deed to that place… my pride and joy My Farm. It’s located in Stardew Valley, on the southern coast. It’s the perfect place to start your new life._  
Kim felt deeply conflicted. Even if this was a low point for her, how could Grandpa think that she could spontaneously leave everything behind to move to some backwards village, where her chances to get back into her real job were lower than Joja’sTM yearly Winterstar holiday bonus payment? Where people wouldn’t even know the difference between _null_ and _zero_?  
She chuckled quietly because of her own bad joke. Then Kim backpedalled mentally a bit and felt a sudden rush of pure joy flooding her wetware. This was not some way to force her out of this job, no, this was an excuse to spontaneously leave everything behind to move to some backwards village, where her chances to get back in her real job were lower than Joja’sTM yearly Winterstar holiday bonus payment! Where people wouldn’t even know the difference between _same_ and _equals_!  
_This was my most precious gift of all, and now it’s yours._  
Thank you, Grandpa! Kim pressed the letter to her bosom, feeling like an enormous weight had fallen off from her. Then she read the rest.  
_I know you’ll honor the family name, my dear. Good luck. Love, Grandpa  
P.S. If Lewis is still alive, say hi to the old guy for me, will ya?_  
Kim didn’t bother dwelling on the thought that she found that “Good luck!” a tiny bit suspicious, but rather chuckled about the fact that Grandpa had ended the letter with a request. So typical of him to give her some extra tasks to bring her out of her shell!  
Filled to the brim with happy excitement she shoved all her personal belongings into her handbag and left her cubicle for the last time ever. Half a minute later she turned back, checked her last code changes back into the repository, wrote a new ticket for the issue she had found and sent the boss a very polite “Foo you!” per email. At least she hoped it was polite, because she used a very fancy font with an extraordinary amount of swirls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you enjoyed reading this first chapter! I plan on roughly following the game's plot and go over most of the heart-events. In the game the player does only talk a few times when choosing an answer, I thought this would make a nice premise for the story. I have a bachelor/ette in mind with whom I want Kim to end up with, but I'll also explore the relationships with other villagers. So until I get to actual romance I don't want to spoil anyone by tagging neither characters that did not turn up yet nor the intended pairing.  
> Also English is not my mother tongue, so feel free to point out if I made any mistakes.


	2. Crust, sweet crust!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim remembers some past connections and has the first opportunity to make new ones.

“I don’t want to!”, screamed the little girl in a high-pitched voice.  
Her grandmother frowned visibly and turned over to her husband: “Honey, I clothed her this morning and got her to eat something that does not completely consist of sugar. I think it’s your turn now.”  
The grandfather gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder, a simple gesture that she could move on. Then he faced the table and looked under it. Little Kimmy clenched the table leg and even had her own ones curled around it. Furious she stared at him, her head red from anger and declared: “I don’t want to go outside to play!”  
He nodded and sat down next to the table, not saying anything, just a smile on his lips.  
“You can’t force me!” She clutched the table leg even harder, quivering from the strain.  
Her grandfather did nothing in response beside adjusting his position a little bit, so that he could sit on the floor as long as he needed to. Thank Yoba that it was Summer, otherwise it would have gotten cold down there quickly.  
Minutes flew by.  
Kim still clenched the table leg, unwilling to let go. She had averted her gaze deliberately from her grandfather, but could not resist peeping from time to time in his direction. Adults were _mean_ , she had to be vigilant. “I hate outside…”, she mumbled.  
Grandpa just shrugged and then let out a yawn.  
“You’re just trying to trick me!”, accused the preschool girl: “You’ll wait till I’m distracted and then you’ll grab me and drag me outside!” Her voice trembled in the face of her memories how her own volition had been ignored again and again, despite not even knowing the word volition.  
He propped his head up on his left arm, glanced over to her and wiggled with his right pinky. “Na, I won’t, promise.”  
She stared at him with suspicion and then averted her look again.  
More minutes went away, just underlined by the soft tick-tock of the clock.  
Kimmy could not stand the suspension any more: “Pah! You are not the first adult that lies to me!”  
An unhappy sigh, followed by: “I’m sorry, dear, it’s a pity that you can’t trust me.”  
He adjusted his position and looked at her directly: “Just know that I think it’s important that a grandchild can trust their grandpa, so I won’t do anything to you which I would not like others to do to me, too. But even as you don’t trust me, I’ll still trust you.”  
“Me?”, she asked, highly confused. It was not just that she had trouble wrapping her head around what he ment, but also how much he had spoken to her. In all of her five years she had never heard her Grandpa say so many words at once.  
“Of course”, he replied: “Because that’s the only viable option. You’ll stay here all of your summer on vacation and when I start that with being a bad grandpa, how will this summer end? Na, I don’t want that. I want to have a fun time this summer and I think, so do you.”  
“I want to have fun…”, she admitted quietly and stared onto the floor. “But…” She failed to verbalize her thoughts. She leaned her head on the table leg, her lower lip slightly starting to quiver. A quick glance to her grandpa, then away again. “Are you angry with me?”  
“Na”, he returned, letting his gaze wander up to the ceiling where a delicate spider had started to build its nest. “I don’t think you have done something wrong, you just need some downtime.” He shifted himself a tiny bit more into her direction and whispered behind his upraised hand, as if he shared a huge secret with her: “I understand how you feel, I’m the same.”  
She shook her hand vigorously: “No you aren’t! You’re my Grandpa, you can do anything! You are outside all day! And no one would ever drag you out!”  
He chuckled: “Well, I’m a lot bigger than you, my dear, that makes it really hard to move me with muscle power alone. But…”, his voice lowered, signaling another secret: “Your Grandma could get me anywhere.”  
“Really?”, asked little Kimmy, highly sceptic.  
“Of course!”, he replied and begann grinning from ear to ear: “It’s your Grandma, there is no other person in this world more persuasive than her!”  
He tipped the little girl onto her nose, which let her give out a high pitched surprised shriek.  
“Hey!”, she squeaked indignant.  
“Sorry”, he said, still with this wide grin: “I sometimes get very silly when I think of your Grandma, I love her very much, more than anyone else.”  
“Oh.” He could hear a bit of disappointment in her voice.  
“That doesn’t mean I don’t love you, my dear. I just love Grandma the most, but that’s because I’ve known her for such a looong time.” He spread his arms to the sides, stressing the amount. Then his voice got a bit teasing: “Also Grandma always tells me, why she does not want to do something. When I don’t know what is wrong, I can’t do anything about it...”  
“The sun!”, bursted Kimmy out, with a vigor reserved for her secret nemesis: “It’s too bright! It stings! I hate it so much!” Her voice started breaking, as tears began rolling down her cheeks: “But no one believes me! They say I should stop exaggerating, not be so sensitive, sunshine is nice, everyone loves the sun!” She shook her head wildly: “But no! I hate the sun, I hate it, I hate it!” Demonstratively she stamped on the ground: “I hate it!”  
“Hm…” Her grandpa seemed in deep thought: “I might know something that could help make the sun a tiny bit more palatable…”  
He stood up and left the room.  
Kimmy sat there for a while, still hugging that table leg. But her curiosity got the better of her, and carefully she tiptoed in the direction he had gone. She stopped at the door case, clutching it not unlike the table’s leg before. Her Grandpa was in the neighbouring room, searching in a huge old wardrobe _something_. He let out a satisfied sound and turned to the door with his find.  
If he was surprised that she followed him, he was great at not showing it. He gave her a happy grin and held out an old plain hat made out of straw. “This is an old hat from your grandma, it’s great at shadowing one’s face!”  
Kimmy knit her brows, looking at that vintage thing.  
“It’s nothing fancy”, Grandpa admitted, “but imagine how beautiful it will look, when you decorate it with a few flowers. Your grandmother has a whole patch full of summer spangle, she’ll surely not mind when we ‘borrow’ a few of them.”  
He made quotation marks with his fingers as he said the word borrow.  
Kimmy took the hat and looked at it, turning it back and forth with her hands.  
Finally she looked up at her grandfather with the most contrite expression he had ever seen from her. “I still want to stay inside…”  
He gently patted her on her head and squatted down to her eye level. He took her hand and pressed it. “I told you that I won’t force you to go outside if you don’t want to. And I’ll also stay inside with you, till you change your mind. If you want to stay all summer in here, so be it.”  
“Really? Really really?”, she inquired.  
“Yeah”, Grandpa answered and stood back up, using the opportunity to stretch a little and yawn. After that he glanced at her sideways and added: “Even when that means that I need to ask Grandma to feed the chicks. They are this cute only for a while.”  
Grandpa went back to the kitchen and got a cup before he went over to the coffee maker. He poured some in and leaned back against the cupboard. Little Kimmy had followed him, clutching the counter with her little hands, her eyes barely peeking over it at him. “Little baby chicken?”, she asked.  
“Yeah. They hatched just a few days ago, they are still really tiny.”  
She didn’t say anything, but he could see the curiosity gleam in her eyes.  
He took another sip to hide his own excitement. Finally he had hooked her, it was time to secure the catch. “We also have very cute ducklings. And the fluffiest rabbits you’ve ever seen. But well, they can’t be fed without leaving the house first. But don’t worry, Grandma will be back in a few hours at max, and they can wait till that.”  
Her expression clouded over: “But aren’t they hungry?”  
“Probably. Every morning I go to feed them, they swarm around me and…”, he went over to her and gently tapped with one finger on her hand: “... peck peck peck the feed as fast as they can.”  
She starred on her hand, then looked up to him.  
“It’s a great experience”, Grandpa said and smiled: “But I guess, just talking about it is not half as nice as the real thing.”  
Little Kimmy glanced over to the door leading outside, and Grandpa could see how her anxiety started bubbling as her mind fought the ancient war of cute baby animals versus the sun. “I don’t want them to starve”, she finally admitted.  
“Me neither”, her Grandpa declared, but then he shook his head and wiggled his right pinky again. “But I made a promise to you and it’s the most important thing for me not to break it.”  
She was torn back and forth.  
“Don’t worry, they’ll be fine.” He paused, then added: “Probably.”  
Little Kimmy whimpered a bit.  
“But if you change your mind, then I could need your help with feeding, so they’ll get their food faster.”  
That was the final blow, kind of.  
“Can I go back in, if it gets too much?”  
“Of course you can!” Grandpa held out a hand to her, while she put the hat on. “Also the animals have their own little house, a coop, so you can also go in there if you want. Maybe some of them are even in there.”  
She grabbed his hand with as much determination she could muster and together they stepped through the door, into the light. 

Blazing, seering, hot light, uncomfortably burning into the eyes.  
“We value you at Joja, very much.”  
Kim stared at the JojaTM supervisor sitting in front of her. That was not a baby chicken.  
“We think of all Joja employees as a big, happy family. And so we are deeply concerned if someone wants to leave.” Kim could not read this man’s emotion, even if she would have made a conscious effort, too harsh was the contrast between the light from the official JojaTM lamp directly directed at her and the shadows creeping over his face.  
“Would you mind… moving the lamp… just a tiny bit…”, she asked weakly, each fragmented sentence harder and harder to bring over her lips.  
He ignored her. “So, you don’t mind sharing with me the reason for wanting to leave, do you?”  
Kim opened her mouth, but found herself unable to say anything. Her throat was filled by an increasingly stinging sensation.  
“It would be a pity, if we found out that you did anything to hurt Joja corp and now try to evade our rightful retribution by quitting. We at Joja do so much work so everyone can feel at home here and do their very best!”  
Flashbacks to Joja’sTM mandatory monthly employee happiness seminars invaded Kim’s mind.  
Joja is life.  
Joja means happiness.  
Without Joja I am nothing.  
Scores of people, all wearing the obligatory JojaTM uniform (Joja is always right) sitting in a featureless blank room (Joja is all I need) repeating JojaTM slogans like mantras for JojaTM hours on end. At least there was as much JojaTM Cola as anyone could pay for. JojaTM corp had the guideline, that JojaTM Cola was such a good product, that it would be a disgrace to devalue it by offering JojaTM employees a discount or even - gasp - for free! Unthinkable. No, JojaTM was so proud of their signature drink, that employees had the honor of paying even 10% more than the general public! Of course for everyone that did not want to drink JojaTM Cola, there were other JojaTM branded beverage options available. But there couldn’t be anyone who would not enjoy the refreshingTM taste of JojaTM Cola, could there? It was no wonder that one would be seen with a certain suspiciousness, when they did not enjoy their tasty drink like everyone else. JojaTM.  
“Of course if you have been the model employee we expect you to have been, there is nothing you have to fear. Although I have heard that for some reason that people who leave our happy family have an extremely hard time to ever find footing in their old profession again.”  
There was not a smidgen of humor in the supervisor’s voice, just pure threat.

Kim shuddered hard. Confused, she looked around and realized that she was on the bus. It was almost empty, and mostly filled with the gentle noise of the buzzing electric motor and the faint sound of _Zuzu City 169 fm_ which the driver listened to, to make the boring ride less so.  
Outside Kim could watch mountains go by and even from time to time the ocean behind it peek through, looking like a glittering jewel, beneath the spring sky with its brilliant blue, sprinkled with cloudy sheeps. As no one was near, she did not suppress her need to waggle with her leg, feeling her mind at an ease she hadn’t been able to feel for a long time. At least as long as she didn’t look up to that bright blue cola advertisement hanging above a few meters away. 

Joja had not been nice to her when she left. Indeed, this was the first time Kim had experienced Joja not only keeping up with their marketing, but even surpassing it. They had placed every stone imaginable in her way and entangelt her in legal shenanigans. She had worked for over a decade for them, and the pay hadn’t been bad at all (because that’s how they lured educated people in), but now almost everything was gone. She had only a few clothes left, an assortment of farming tools (brand new from the triple deluxe bargain used discount selection bin) and 500G. Even her farm didn’t technically belong to her, which was a blessing in disguise, because the testament had the ownership automatically transferred to her father, after it had not been claimed by her in the five years after Grandpa’s death. Of course her father would transfer ownership back to her at the first possible occasion, but in the meantime there was no way for Joja to get the authorities to also seize her heritage, claiming it was needed as evidence in the trial.  
She praised Yoba that he had gifted her with an obsession to documenting and back-upping everything at work; her attorney from the Anti-JojaTM interest group had assured her, that her case was waterproof so she should get everything back with generous interest - but Joja would do their best to stretch out this trial over the next decade. That was the other thing the corporation was surprisingly better than all of its competition. If Joja really was family, then it had to be the crazy ex that could only find joy by ruining your life. 

Forcefully Kim snapped her mind away from those unpleasant thoughts. No time to waste for Joja anymore, this was her break off, her new clean state of life. She had left everything behind and was determined to count ‘loneliness’ among those things. No one in this town knew her personally, so no one could imagine how deeply flawed she was. This was the chance of her lifetime, she had collected so much experience in pretending to be normal and this time she would never let circumstances overwhelm her so much that her mask failed and people would see her self. She would be nice and charming and keep her stupid oppinions exclusively to herself. There would be no way that she’d overstep any boundary ever again, she would make sure that people would tolerate her presence not just because of work related reasons.  
Yeah, it definitely had to be doable, to not end up as an outcast she would just never have to show vulnerability to others again! Nothing could get wrong with this plan! It was foolproof, no, even _KIM_ proof.  
Her other leg joined the stimming of its partner without her noticing.  
Yup, she would make meaningful connections with people and nature, exactly as Grandpa wanted. She wondered if he watched her from some other place, proud with how much determination she tackled this opportunity. She did use the last few weeks not only to handle the necessities of leaving home, work and everything behind (which still was an extremely spontaneous thing for her) but also spend many hours in Zuzu city’s state library, where she read up every bit of farming related literature she could get her hands on. It had been a joy to learn something completely new, to engross herself deeply in the subject matter and pursuing any tangents that appeared, unbound by any notion of ‘correct order’ or ‘focussing on the big picture first’. She was sure that she would be able to literally grow a successful business in record time, not even a yota behind any experienced farmer. She had notes! If her last job as programmer had taught her one thing, then that planning and proper documentation was already half the work.  
And of course, she would say ‘Hi’ to this Lewis guy from Grandpa, this was her top priority. The family name would be honored, she would not disappoint.  
Nervously she checked herself in a little folding mirror. Her hair didn’t look like a complete mess, thanks to putting that on her departure checklist, and her bow-tie still sat nice and snuggly. She felt almost snazzy. Of course only guys normally wore those, but she wanted to make a distinguished first impression, to show that she was not some kind of desperate wrack but rather a successful career woman from town.  
No time for self doubt! Besides, normally only girls wore bows, so a bow-tie could never come over too masculine. Also she had uncovered an old photo of Grandpa, where he wore one, so this was a way for her to borrow a little bit of his strength. He surely would have approved, like she would win the approval of the people at her new home. 

“Next station, Pelican town, please press the button if you want to get off there!”, the driver mumbled into his microphone, using this very special monotone tone that would make anyone working in public transport envious. Kim tucked on her bow-tie for luck, grabbed her tools and left the bus. Her fake self-consciousness immediately deflated as she saw someone; obviously waiting for her. 

A woman, middle aged, orange-reddish hair kinda open and partly up at. Practical clothing, brown west over a yellow sweatshirt, green trousers, boots. Kim reminded herself to focus on the face. Seemed like a polite smile.  
“Hello! You must be Kim.”  
Kim was thankful that it was not on her to start the conversation. But then the woman extended a hand to her.  
“I’m Robin, the local carpenter.”  
Anxiously Kim juggeld her tools around, to free one hand, so she could participate in the handshake, but the pick, axe, hoe, scythe and watering can were a bit too much to handle at once.  
Robin unextended her hand and talked on as if nothing was wrong: “Mayor Lewis sent me here to fetch you and show you the way to your new home. He’s there right now, tidying things up for your arrival. The farm’s right over here, if you’ll follow me.”  
She turned away and led the way, while Kim followed wordlessly, her tools clattering and rattling with each step.  
The former programmer bit slightly on her lower lip. A female carpenter? That was really cool, but it was not adequate to express admiration. She knew from her own experience very well how annoying it could be when people commented how admirable it was to do a job usually done by the other gender. As if she didn’t just do her work, like anybody else. Life would be so much easier if people wouldn’t think so much in stereotypes...  
Robin interrupted the train of thought by announcing: “This is My farm.”  
Confusion set in, but then Kim finally understood what she until now had thought of as a writing mistake. Of course, that capital “My” was the name of the farm, not a possessive pronoun. She had no doubt from whose mind that name had sprouted from.  
Kim groaned a bit, how could she overlook this obvious Grandma joke?  
“What’s the matter?”, asked Robin, misinterpreting the sound. She smiled encouragely. “Sure, it’s a bit overgrown, but there’s some good soil underneath that mess! With a little dedication you’ll have it cleaned up in no time.”  
The carpenter walked further, Kim followed, rattling, and tried to focus her mind on saying something to Robin which would seem normal and not completely embarrassing. It couldn’t be that hard, most of humanity managed to do that all the time.  
Robin stopped in front of the small house that Kim remembered so dearly from childhood vacations. She smiled broadly, genuine: “And here we are, your new home.”  
Kim took a deep breath, now or never!  
The front door of the house swung open.  
Kims lung deflated. Nope.  
It was an old man, with a classic old man cap on his white hair, a mustache, green shirt, and suspenders. He smiled at Kim and noted: “Ah, the new farmer!”  
He extended his hand, like Robin before. For a moment Kim played with the idea of disengaging her tools, but deemed that too silly. Her goal was making a good impression, not make herself look like a fool.  
The man redirected his hand to his mustache, and continued after a tactful cough. “Welcome! I’m Lewis, Mayor of Pelican Town.”  
Oh - _that_ Lewis!  
“You know, everyone’s been asking about you.”  
Kim felt going pale.  
“It’s not every day that someone new moves on. It’s quite a big deal!”  
He turned to the house, and Kim thanked Yoba, because her face probably looked like sheer terror. 'Pull yourself together!', she chastised herself mentally.  
“So… You’re moving into your grandfather’s old cottage. It’s a good house... very ‘rustic’”, Lewis declared, obviously trying to talk the state of the house up.  
Robin could not suppress a chuckle and chipped in: “Rustic? That’s one way to put it… ‘Crusty’ might be a little more apt, though.”  
“Rude!”, exclaimed Lewis and turned a bit red, turning back to Kim, angrily clarifying: “Don’t listen to her, Kim. She’s just trying to make you dissatisfied so that you buy one of her house upgrades.”  
Now the carpenter moped, crossing her arms underlined with a classic “Hmmph”.  
The mayor went back to business and returned to a friendly tone: “Anyway… you must be tired from the long journey. You should get some rest.”  
Kim nodded.  
“Tomorrow you ought to explore the town a bit and introduce yourself. The townspeople would appreciate that.”  
Inside Kim started screaming in panic. It was not like that suggestion was a surprise, but hearing it spoken out loud made it so much more real, so much more threatening.  
The mayor got a move on, but stopped just a few meters later, pointing towards a big box. “Oh, I almost forgot. If you have anything to sell, just place it in the box here. I’ll come by during the night to collect it.” He smiled again: “Well…. Good luck!”  
And then he was gone, followed by Robin, who bid farewell to Kim with a small wave, quickly catching up with the old man. 

Kim pushed the door open and got inside, putting the tools down at the first opportunity. She took a deep breath in and let the old house speak for itself. Tears started rolling down her cheeks, as she remembered those long gone summers.  
This… this was her home now, and by Yoba, she could not imagine any place she wanted to be more at.

The gravel creaked under the soles of Robin and Lewis.  
“Thanks for the advance warning”, the carpenter finally said: “Things would have been so much more awkward. That farmer even eclipses my Sebby.”  
“Don’t worry”, said Lewis: “It’s exactly like all those years ago, when her Grandpa joined the valley. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought she was his female doppelganger.”  
“Sounds like directly from the uncanny valley.”  
“What valley? Never heard from that one.”  
“Err… it’s just some tech speak I snapped up from my son. Something about how things almost like a human are very creepy.”  
Lewis shook his head: “Don’t let the first impression fool you. She’ll make a fine addition to the town, just needs time to adjust.” He looked back at the farm: “Her Grandpa even found a wife, which is more than I managed in this regard.”  
Robin politely didn’t mention that everyone knew about his ‘secret’ fling with Marnie. “So you think she’ll marry into here?”  
“I would not be surprised. Of course I wouldn’t look down one anyone that prefers to stay single. But like I said last week at the meeting: No pressure, no pushing, stay inviting and our new member will find her way into this community on her own.”  
“As long as they make use of my services I’ll be happy with anyone.”  
“That’s the spirit!”, said Lewis and laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter number two, I hope you enjoyed the read. After getting this out the way, you can look forward to Kim introducing herself to the townsfolk.


	3. Mental tools

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim manages to make new friends! Afterwards she goes and starts the task of introducing herself to the people of Stardew Valley.

Kim seriously contemplated staying in bed all day long, staring at the ceiling. There was never a place she liked as much as this shabby little house, so there was little improvement to be found by going elsewhere. On the other hand, the people which had made this place so special to her were long gone…  
With a sigh Kim rolled herself out of her bed. She had promised herself to make her late Grandpa proud. And she didn’t even manage to say “Hi!” to Lewis the day before, so there was no question that she had to jump over her own shadow and rectify this failure by making a proper introduction to the people in town today.  
But she should perhaps set her expectations a bit lower. Grandpa would surely not mind when she reduced the introduction to a simple handshake, would he? He only asked her to greet Lewis… It was better to start slow, she had underestimated how much the bus drive would tire her out, that explained why she was unable to talk to anyone.  
And she’d not do it immediately, of course, first take meds and wait for them to kick in… Also Lewis had left her seeds!  
Her face lit up as she remembered the seed packet with the little welcome note on her kitchen table next to the house key. At first she had thought that this was a snack, but stuff like this could happen to anyone, especially someone who did not think of packing food when moving in the middle of nowhere. She had 12 whole packs of parsnip seeds, more than enough to start her new agrarian career!  
Last night she had used the time to make a detailed plan of how the patch would have to look and according to her very detailed calculations it would take half an hour at most to implement it.  
Yes, this was a good time to do it, first sow parsnips, then do the hard stuff. Productive work was no procrastination!  
She looked at her tools and stopped for a moment. Well she would build some kind of relationship with them, won’t she? A work relationship, but a relationship nonetheless. If mighty warriors in stories could name their swords, then she could name her tools, too, that was just fair.  
Old habits die slowly, as naming things had been a surprisingly important part of her previous job and she had despised it with compassion when colleagues had used single letter variable names instead of descriptive ones. Who the heck was anyone supposed to maintain that stuff?!  
Annoyed, she blew a strand of hair out of her face and started with the scythe. As farming was not coding, she didn’t have to use names that described the function of the tools, and also _name-y_ names seemed so much more adequate. Plus it would be fun to find fitting ones.  
Okay, with a scythe she was immediately reminded of the anthropomorphic representation of death. Something like Mort?  
“You are Mortimer!”, she decided, pointing at the scythe.  
Next one. The axe. With those you made lumber. Yoba, this was _easy_.  
“You are Jack!”  
Afterwards she eyed the pickaxe. Now it was hard. A pity - for a moment Kim thought she had a run. She needed a more elaborate association… Communism? Yeah, that would work.  
“Your name is Karl!”, she decided and snickered a bit.  
Then the hoe. This one was tricky, she needed the most un-hoe-y name she could imagine; and ideally a female one, because who wants a shed full of wieners? No one, diverse teams were better, even Joja understood this simple conceptTM.  
“Maria!”, named Kim the hoe and finally arrived at the watering can.  
It seemed to round and rotund, she needed a cozy sounding name. “Hm… are you a Bärbel?”, she asked the watering can. There was no opposition and the name sounded _right_.  
“Well, then it’s set!”, declared Kim and clapped her hands: “Let’s get to work, team!”

Five hours later she finally finished the work for which she had generously allotted a half hour time slot. Kim was wheezing, and her arms and back felt like burning, her tights wobbly. In short, Kim was a complete mess. She could feel the sweat running down her back, although it had been rather overcast till now, so her nemesis hadn’t been able to bother her much. But as if speaking of the devil, the weather seemed to make a turn to the worse, as the first sunray bore its way through the clouds.  
Her parsnip patch was tiny, and a bit wonky, but she was none the less satisfied with the work, even if she had seriously overestimated how long I’d take. But it was like in coding; you needed to code a few stories first to get a feeling for how long implementing things will take. That’s the agile way of living!  
Kim looked at her watch, one of the few mementos her Grandpa had kept of Grandma. She had unearthed it last night, when she inspected if there were any useful things left in the house. Not much, as it turned out. Someone must have used the years of abandonment to enrich themselves by janking anything that was neither nailed down nor heavy. Or was so seriously dowdy that no regular person would have any interest in it.  
Kim sighed, full of nostalgia. Grandma... Her impeccable taste had ensured her a way to tell the time now. And that 90s neon rainbow kitty design would surely trend again, sooner or later, no doubt.  
Two pm already! No time to waste!  
The freshly baked farmer assembled her trusty team of tools and returned into the house, which was just a few meters away, because it made sense to have the first patch near to her base of operation, didn’t it? But she would do the second one a bit closer to the watering hole, because returning there to refill Bärbel had taken quite some time on its own. And she was careful to fill her not too much, as she had the nagging suspicion that Bärbel would not make it if she tried using her at full capacity. Frankly _all_ her tools seemed like they would break if you just looked at them funny enough… But that’s the quality you could expect for anything brand new from the triple deluxe bargain used discount selection bin.  
Anyway, they didn’t break today, and were still a vast improvement over having none at all. Good that she didn’t count on someone not illegally stealing her Grandpa’s old tools… Even if her main motivation to buy the team had been her overboarding excitement…  
Kim shed her clothes and turned to the task to freshen up, to make herself less messy and more presentable. A quick scrub, generously slathering sunscreen onto everything, clean clothes, brushing and braiding the hair and lastly the bow-tie and the kitty watch. With the combined power of two mementos she felt ready to tackle the most daunting task of the day.  
She went over to the front door, put her hand onto the handle and full of vigor - stopped.  
“I’m ready to go”, she told herself. Still, she felt unable to push the handle. It was like an insurmountable barrier, every fiber in her body resisting going outside. Foo. Kim hated when that happened.  
She turned back from the door, walked over to the bed and sat down burrowing her face in her hands. Why did things have to be so hard? No, she could not give up yet, failing before even attempting was not a viable option, the family name had to be honored.  
Kim looked up and breathed a few times deliberately deep. She was only ready in concept, but not emotionally. But she could fix that, she was not in a hurry, there was the time to use every single tool at her disposal if she had to. She would go through that door today and make her introduction, even if it took her the whole season!  
First thing, did she take her meds at lunchtime? She pulled out her pill case with the supply for the week and counted her remaining pills for the day. Yep, one too many. But it wasn’t that bad, one or two hours late were occasionally okay. Routinely she gulped the capsule down - without getting water - and then switched mentally to the next tool.  
She grabbed her new journal, opened it in the middle, far away from the to-do entries itself, and started writing. First, the situation: “Meet the people in town one by one, and say “Hi!” to Lewis.”  
Yeah, that was it. Next, how did she currently feel? She started by noting down symptoms: “Feeling chill, choking sensation, chest feels tight => Fear”  
Third, what did she think that made her feel this way? “Everyone will hate me and think I’m a stupid piece of ship. I’ll make a complete fool out of myself and people will actively go out of my way and/or start to bully me.” Yup, that seemed accurate.  
The fourth step was the hardest. What would _really_ happen when you looked at things in a realistic way? “People will think I’m awkward”, Kim wrote down. Yeah, that was a given, but beyond that? “Some will think I’m strange, because that’s always the case with any new person.” She paused pondering. “And most will probably go on with their day and not care about me one way or the other.” Yeah, that was right, most people wouldn’t bother to instantly form an intense hatred of some stranger the moment they meet them. What a reassuring thought…  
Last step, what were concrete things to do to get from fear down to a relaxed, neutral state of mind? “Remember: No one gives a foo about you personally, any interest will be only because you’re the new gal here.”  
Kim felt her heartbeat slowing down a bit. Good, it worked, time for the next technique. 

An hour later Kim finally walked through the front door, ready to conquer the valley. The nemesis sent its light through the canopy of the trees, drawing spotted shadows onto the ground. Birds were chirping (much quieter than Kim knew from the city) and there even was a cute little squirrel that instantly scooted up a tree as it noticed her. It seemed to knock a seed loose, because it began spiralling down helicopter-style. ‘A maple!’, deduced Kim and pocketed the seed for later. She looked back at her farm _My_ farm overgrown with a literal tree orchard consisting of maples, pines and oaks of wildly varying ages. Still, a seed saved was a tree earned.  
She was taking the scenic route down south, via the forest, instead the shorter one that passed the bus stop. It was not only because she felt this way she would need to pass less houses on her way to Lewis’ one (a belief that turned out to be wrong later), but also because she wanted to get an impression of the farm’s north-south expansion. Not much had remained from the old days, but she could mentally picture fields of tasty crops, little groupings of fruit trees and pastures full of happy animals. Then she shifted over to thinking about what obstacles she had to overcome to make this fantasy a reality. She sat down on the fallen trunk of a tree and opened her journal and wrote in a section she headlined with ‘Quests’:  
\- say hi to Lewis  
\- introduce yourself to the people of Stardew Valley  
\- harvest something  
\- build a coop  
She looked at those first goals and then furrowed her brows. Nope, those weren’t very smart, much too vague!  
Kim stroke everything out and rewrote everything, so that she could mentally check each necessary property:  
\- Say “Hi” to Lewis today.  
That checked specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and terminable.  
\- Go to every person living here and introduce yourself with at least a handshake today.  
Kim hesitated a bit and then realized that this was not realistic. There was a very real possibility that she would not be able to meet everyone today, people had their own life. She crossed ‘today’ and replaced it with ‘this week’ and added after a moment ‘if possible’, to have a catch for the case that someone was currently on a round-the-world trip or something. Did people in the countryside do those?  
\- Harvest at least one parsnip this month.  
That would work, she had sowed 12 packs and they should be ready till then, if the labeling could be trusted.  
\- Find Robin’s workshop and ask her for a cost estimate for a coop this week.  
Yes, that was definitely doable, Kim felt so much more at ease when talking about work-related things, because there was an instant emotional distance. And as a farmer a coop was definitely work-related.  
Satisfied, she closed her journal and put it away. Things looked good today, even in full nemesis-light. A happy grin creeped onto her face, this new life really had the possibility to work out.  
Almost skipping she returned to her way. After passing the cliffside that marked the southern border of the farm, she turned east, following a well trodden dirt track. Then she heard the sound of soft mooing, punctuated by the occasional clucking of chicken.  
Kim’s speed up and ended up at the fence of a little farm where several cows were munching on grass. She took some time to take this idyllic scene in.  
"Ah, Mayor Lewis told me you just arrived.”, said someone from behind. Kim immediately swung around, like a scalded cat.  
“I'm Marnie!”, the middle aged woman (brown long hair, green dress over a white blouse, kinda chubby) explained and added: “I sell livestock and animal care products at my ranch.”  
She held out her hand.  
It felt like an eternity, but Kim stretched out her own, and partook in the social ritual called handshake, feeling like some robot. After an appropriate amount of time she withdrew her hand.  
An awkward silence spread out, and Kim felt like Marnie waited for something.  
Finally the rancher said in a motherly tone: “You should swing by some time."  
Kim nodded hecticly and went away, as fast as she could without obviously starting to run.  
A few hundred meters later, her legs began to wobble and she leaned against a tree, next to another house. That parsnip patch really had taken up most of her energy for the day.  
To her horror she heard something rustle. Something big.  
"Hello, it's nice to meet you.”, another female voice greeted her. Kim turned to the fence surrounding a garden whose most outstanding feature were several oddly shaped wooden blocks. ‘A woodworker?’, wondered Kim. ‘No, an artist…”  
At the fence stand a young woman, still tools in one hand. Kim immediately felt impressed how pretty she was. Ginger hair in a single long braid over her shoulder, a green top that left her stomach free, brown suspenders, grey pants. Kim would never be able to wear something like this and look good in it.  
“You picked a good time to move here... The spring is lovely."  
Kim nodded, hecticly closed the distance to the woman, to shake her hand mechanically. Then, as much abruptly as before, she backed up slowly, smiling defensively. She had the sudden intuition to point at first her watch and then to the town, the universal signal for ‘Gotta go!’, before she fled, without realizing that the other person didn’t even say her name.  
Nervously Kim channeled her inner ninja and sneaked the rest of the way to Lewis’s house, running from tree to tree to not be seen. This was too stressful, and it would be better for her, if she could bring the most intense task behind her, before tackling the rest of the introductions.  
Finally she saw the address where Lewis was supposed to live and indeed the mayor kneeled down in front of his house, attending to a flower bed.  
Kim took a deep breath. Unfortunately he seemed to hear that and turned towards her.  
“So, how was your first night in the old cottage?” He took off his right gardening glove to offer the obligatory handshake. Kim participated, holding her breath.  
“Your grandpa used to complain about the rickety old bed”, Lewis mused: ”But I think, deep down, he actually loved that house."  
The thought of Grandpa calmed her down a tiny bit. Kim nodded, she loved the house, too.  
The lack of oxygen made itself noticeable and in one fell swoop she managed to bring up enough courage to blurt out: “GrandpaAskedMeToSayHiToYou!!”  
Lewis blinked.  
Kim blinked, too, and somehow managed again: “Hi!!”  
Silence.  
“Thank you!”, Lewis returned after the initial surprise and nodded: “It’s nice to see that you start to thaw out a bit.”  
She made some uncoordinated gestures in an attempt to react appropriately, lost her nerves, turned around, hurried away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading! I felt that the chapter would get to long if I tried to incorporate them all in here, so expect to see the rest of them (minus the usual suspects) in the next one.


	4. Up and down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim continues her quest to introduce herself to the people in town.

“Hello, I’m the new farmer Kim. Nice to meet you. Hello, I’m the new farmer Kim. Nice to meet you. Hello, I’m the new farmer Kim. Nice to meet you. Hello, I’m the new farmer Kim, nice to meet you…”  
Kim had somehow ended up near a playground and took refuge behind a big bush. She was not satisfied with how her first tries at introducing herself had gone, so it was time to automate that process to minimize the margin of error. Introducing herself without talking had been a horrible idea and she chastised herself mentally for it. She had allowed her anxieties to get the better of her. And realized that it has never been as bad as it was now. She could remember times well in which she was able to do this kind of human contact without panicking like a deer in a headlight. Times before Joja.  
Yeah, in hindsight it was obvious, that crunch had not only pushed her to her load limit but also deteriorated her inherently bad social skills even further. Of course she had to grow increasingly insecure without having any opportunities to socialise beside the rare talk about strictly work-related problems. But she was determined to undo that damage, identifying was the first step to rectify a problem.  
And so she decided to burn a simple, but inconspicuous introduction into her mind, so that she could automatically pull it off without thinking twice about it. She just had to give the anxieties no opportunity to act up again. Which meant that she also needed to initiate the handshake herself instead of purely reacting to others.  
Grab a hand. “Hello, I’m the new farmer Kim. Nice to meet you.” Shake, shake, shake, let go. Grab a hand. “Hello. I’m the new farmer Kim. Nice to meet you.” Shake, shake, shake, let go...  
Feeling like the routine had become internalized Kim nodded to herself. Yes, this should work much better.  
And if the anxieties welled up again, then she would make a break and calm then down again. It was hard, but not impossible. She could do this, she was smart enough to regain control over herself, her life.  
A look at the watch showed that it was getting late afternoon. If she wanted to ask about that coop she should better get now to Robin’s workshop instead of later.  
Peeking out from the bush, she made sure the front was clear (as no one needed to know that she had the need to hide herself from them) and went on her way. She did not know for sure, where that workshop was exactly, but felt like she had a pretty good idea where it should be located.  
She made her way east again, looking out for the road leading north.

Passing a really dilapidated building she suddenly saw herself confronted with a small group, consisting of an adult woman and two children, a girl and a boy, the latter preoccupied with a snail house. Kim shot straightaway into the direction of the woman, held out her hand and recited her slogan: “Hello, I’m the new farmer Kim. Nice to meet you!”  
"Oh…”, the woman seemed to need a moment to process the surprise, but then smiled and shook Kim’s hand: “Hello! I'm Penny..." She had short reddish hair with some kind of curl on the bottom, a yellow blouse, pink skirt, petite, feminine.  
Kim extended her hand in the direction of the girl (violet dress, green bow, dark hair), which flew behind Penny’s legs and shyly said: "...Hi…”  
Did she do something wro-  
"Oh, a stranger!” The boy (scrubby hair, a striped shirt in red and yellow, jeans, very chubby cheeks) pointed at her, then reversed the direction and pointed at himself: “My name's Vincent.” Then, with the wisdom only a small boy could have: “Momma says not to talk to strangers... But you seem okay."  
“Thank you!”, replied Kim and nodded. Somehow she found talking to little kids easier.  
“That’s my new friend, Shelby!”, Vincent introduced his snail.  
Penny cleared her throat: “Vincent, don’t bother Kim, I’m sure she has other things to do, like yourself.”  
The boy rolled with his eyes. “School”, he said as if that would explain everything.  
“Have a nice day! Sorry for not having time to chat!” Penny shooed the kids on, and for the first time this day, Kim did not feel like running away.  
The plan worked!

The path up to the mountain was well trodden and besides grew some fresh springtime forage, like daffodils, dandelions, leek and wild horseradish. Kim would have loved to collect some of those things, but she did not have a backpack.  
She made a short stop under a especially fluffy pine and took out her journal to add “Check local grocer’s store for backpack availability and price today” to her quest log. And then she checkmarked with great satisfaction her first task in the list. It could have gone better, but she was simply too bad at socialisation to expect perfection. Perfection was a path she tried trodding down a few times and it never worked out in the end. It was simply unachievable.  
Kim flipped a few pages further, where she had marked with a paper tap her notes on Pelican town’s residents. Recognizing people was not her strong suit, and as she could not make photos without looking fishy to learn who looked how.  
Though the easiest way to recognize people was still by their voice, but for that she needed to hear that for a while. She remembered her university days where she had attended that one professor’s lectures for two semesters, but then utterly failed to recognize him in another context - until she heard him say something. How were other people able to do this? Must have something to do with their compulsion to look at each other so much…  
Kim finished her entries on Marnie, Leah, Penny, Vincent and “Little Girl” and closed her journal. Her muscles ached, and she took a moment to stretch a bit. Did she tense up because of her anxiousness? Was she already so antisocial that even the mere thought - wait. She had done hard physical labour for hours; the very reverse of her old job. Of course her muscles were aching. Kim smiled again, happy that she was able to break that wrong chain of thought so early before it could drag her down to rock bottom.  
A good quarter hour later, she could see the roof of a house peek over the pine trees. That should it be! Her Grandpa had told her once, that the local carpenter had his home a bit away in the mountains and Kim simply hoped that the current one used the same base of operation.  
She crossed over a big clearing in front of the house. A sign with a saw on it fortified her believe that she was right here, but besides that the house seemed unremarkable to Kim. The most interesting thing about it was a small porch with a telescope on it, in front of some sort of side wing.  
Quickly she closed the distance to the door and could spot a small plaque with opening hours on it. A quick glance at the rainbow neon kitty watch told her that she was still early enough, so she opened the door without knocking first, to not seem strange.  
She entered the house and indeed there was a counter, with Robin behind it, currently studying some construction plans. A little bell rang as Kim opened the door, causing the carpenter to look up and smiling politely in recognition.  
"Have you met everyone in town yet?”, Robin asked.  
Kim shook her head.  
Silence.  
“Then you plan to see the rest after this?”, the carpenter tried to revive the conversation.  
Kim nodded.  
”That sounds exhausting”, said Robin, closing this conversation thread, sensing that the farmer clearly would not socialize over the topic of socializing.  
Kim cleared her throat, as a hidden signifier to herself that it was time to enter work mode. “I’d like to know how much you want for building a coop.”  
The carpenter stared at the farmer confused about the sudden verbosity and asked: “You want to build a coop?”  
“Yes, there was none on My farm, so I guess it must have fallen into disuse and was probably demolished after it decayed beyond hope. Well, that’s the most logical scenario I can come up with, as there are no barns nor any sheds either. At least I found the ruins of Grandpas old glasshouse. Only this one had some sort of fundament left.”  
“Yeah, that’s probably what happened”, replied Robin, who did not have any clue how her predecessor had handled the business as he had taken all his documentation with him.  
“So can you do a quote for building a coop? I want to diversify my farming as soon as possible and think that poultry is a better entry point than dairy animals.”  
“Yes of course, I have a catalogue for such things, let me get it!” She opened a drawer on her side of the counter and went through a number of diverse catalogues.  
Kim heard steps coming from the right side and looked in the direction. A dark coloured scientist, complete with lab coat and safety goggles came over to her, behind him a biological lab clearly visible. “Greetings! I'm Demetrius, local scientist and father”, he introduced himself, holding out a hand. Kim’s brain needed a moment to switch from work mode to socialising, but luckily she could rely on her algorithm. “Hello, I’m the new farmer Kim. Nice to meet you.” She grabbed his hand, shake, shake, shake, let go.  
“Thanks for introducing yourself!”, he said jovial. “I'm studying the local plants and animals from my home laboratory.” He pointed behind himself. Then he inquired: “Have you met my daughter Maru? She's interested to meet you."  
‘Help!’, Kim screamed internally, that guy did not seem to be inclined to stop the conversation soon. What _Joja manager_ came over him to come to the conclusion she wanted to have small talk?  
“Hey, don’t forget Sebbi!”, reminded Robin her husband, and placed the open catalogue on the counter in front of Kim.  
“Oh yes, my dear stepson”, Demetrius said, sounding not very amused: “I guess he might want to meet you, too, if he ever manages to leave that basement of his.”  
“Don’t be unfair!”, Robin scolded him: “He went out a few hours ago, because he had plans for the day. Which is something you would have known if you just talked with him from time to time.”  
“Hey, I’m just trying to keep the peace. Sebastian is the one that gets passive-aggressive whenever I try to have a conversation with him!”  
Kim felt extremely uncomfortable trapped in weird family matters. Panic started to form and she took the only way out that made sense in the moment.  
“So, your cheapest model of coop is 4000G?”, she asked, hiding herself behind work mode. “This is quite a lot less than I had expected.”  
Robin and Demitrius exchanged a look, but then the carpenter shooed the scientist away with a gesture, then tapped her finger on the illustration of the coop Kim was inquiring about: “Yes, but I need to point out that this price does not include any building materials.”  
Demitrius returned wordless to his laboratory.  
“Hm…", Kim scrached he chin. "So I have to supply them myself? Or is there an option to get the necessary things from you?”  
“Of course”, replied Robin: “But I think it will be much better for you to source the building materials directly from your farm, as it won’t be cheap to buy enough wood and stone.”  
She pulled out a calculator and punched in the numbers, presenting Kim the sum which was 1000G higher than the building cost. “This is the price for the materials alone. You’re lucky that the governor had started a subsidizing program this year, which makes building materials a lot cheaper. When that runs out you can calculate with around five times the cost.” She tapped at the calculator again, but Kim didn’t need to see the numbers to know that this was not a cheap affair.  
The farmer tipped on another coop othering: “I’m not sure if I just want the most basic offer anyway. But I’m curious, what does that ‘Upgrade’ next to this one supposed to mean?”  
“Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to explain the system first. Let me give you the necessary details.”  
She pointed at the basic coop offering: “If you want a new coop, this is the only offer I can make.” She moved her hand to the next one: “But I can upgrade it afterwards, so that you have more space and a few extra amenities. The price and materials listed are not for a complete construction but for what is necessary to improve the building. After that you can upgrade a second time.”  
“Wouldn’t it be cheaper to build the better version all at once?”  
Robin shook her head: “Not really, this coop is designed to be built step by step, because the distance to the next big city makes professional scaffolders quite expensive… That’s why I’m using parts of the early steps as scaffolding for the later ones. But doing it this way has one big advantage, you don’t have to relocate your animals during the upgrade, which means your coop is useable much sooner. Building everything right away would neither save work, nor time, nor materials, so I think it’s in everyone’s best interest doing it step by step. It also makes the financial part a bit easier, as you don’t have to get so much together at once. Which again means having a usable coop sooner.”  
“Thanks a lot for this information. Would you mind if I note down some of the most important numbers for my personal papers?”  
Robin laughed: “Take the catalogue, that’s what it’s for!”  
Kim nodded and did exactly that. “I will inform you, when I’ve enough money and materials to have you built that coop. Unless I find a better offer elsewhere.”  
She didn’t notice that Robin’s smile showed a few cracks, offended by the fact that the farmer did not want her particularly to build the coop. 

Outside Kim saw another Pelican...ian? Pelicanese? Pelican city dweller?  
That should be this Sebastian guy... He was kinda dark, like Demetrius, but more in an emo-goth instead of a melanin way. His midnight blue hair was longest in the front, hiding part of his face. His clothing was dark and he seemed scrawny, and made the impression of not leaving the house much. In other words, he looked kind of like he could be an introvert. Maybe she could form a friendly connection with this guy?  
She shook her head. It wasn’t right to speculate in that way about other people. And just because they maybe had one thing in common did not mean that he would be happy to make her acquaintance. Nevertheless it was time for the next introduction.  
She walked over to him and held out her hand: “Hello, I’m the new farmer Kim. Nice to meet you!”  
Sebastian took a pull from his zigarette, blowing the smoke out. "Oh.” He eyed her up, from head to bottom. “You just moved in, right? Cool.”  
He ignored her hand. Kim retracted it. But as she wanted to turn away, he spoke again: “Out of all the places you could live, you chose Pelican Town?"  
Kim lifted an eyebrow in confusion.  
“I mean, this jerkwater town is the last place I’d ever move into, if given a choice.”  
He took out his zigarette, which was just a gleaming rest now, and looked like he wanted to simply flip it into the gras. But he sighed and pulled out a small portable ashtray out of his sweater’s pocket and trashed it correctly. He glanced sideways at Kim, who was still looking at him: “My old man would give me hell if he caught me littering out here, so I don’t. Not worth the hassle.”  
Sebastian put his hands into his pockets and sauntered back to his home.  
The farmer left and made her way back to the city. Even the most obvious introvert was better at socialising than her. But that wasn’t surprising not really.  
The sand crunched under her feet and she could see the first roofs between the trees, at least this place wasn’t that big. Which in hindsight was maybe a really bad thing for her? Kim realized that in such a great town she would not have the option to hide inside annonymity of the masses, if she did something stupid, knowledge about that would spread like room -temperature butter on a toast.  
She leaned against a tree and tried to stop the spiral of self-doubting. Questioning each and every interaction with others had turned into a nasty habit and was one of the reasons why this was so exhausting. She rubbed her eyes, yes this felt even more exhausting than the physical labour from the morning.  
Kim managed to steer her thinking to the topic of her new parsnip patch and what she should plant next, as she had read about companion plants and half remembered that parsnips had been somewhere in that list with common pairings.  
This was a fascinating principle and definitely worth a try, maybe she could even set up a little experiment comparing patches with and without companions and afterwards write a little white-paper. She smirked at the idea, that she could then claim that she was able to finally stand out in her field.  
Kim remembered the times when she wrote her thesis and her therapist tried to get her out of her depressive mood by making jokes like this. And she even somehow managed to get that degree. Just to waste all that hard work afterwards by applying at Joja. At that time this seemed like the easiest option, because despite how bad Joja’s reputation might be, the corporation would give anyone with certain qualifications a chance. Yeah, if you looked at it from the right angle, then Joja wasn’t the worst employer out there, they took her in and the pay was even kinda decent. If she thought about it, then  
Kim stopped right in her tracks, as if hit by lightning. Was she seriously contemplating how Joja was not that bad?! What the heck was wrong with her?! “I got here to leave Joja behind!”, she reminded herself verbally, startling some yellow bush.  
“A stranger?”, asked the shrub, turning towards her. ”...” He didn’t say anything and Kim realized that plants do not have white hair and hands and especially don’t look like old men.  
“Hello”, he said scratching his head.  
The farmer spooled off her algorithm. “Hello, I’m the new farmer Kim. Nice to meet you.” She extended her hand.  
But he held his ones up in defense and shook his head: “Don't mind me. I just live out here alone." With these words he vanished backwards into a bush, becoming one with nature.  
Kim let her hand sink. Great. She couldn’t even socialize with an elderly bush guy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I could not resist working on some of the later parts in parallel, but I'll try to post a new chapter every weekend. Let's see how that works out! The introductions take more words than I anticipated, so the next chapter (and maybe the one after) will be continuing this thread, but I'm looking forward to what comes after. I hope you'll enjoy what comes, too, even if the story moves at a slow pace.


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